:00:00. > :00:17.Now on BBC News, all the latest business news live from Singapore.
:00:18. > :00:23.Volatile times for Asian currencies. We find out what has been driving
:00:24. > :00:31.them up and down. And customise clothing without
:00:32. > :00:37.putting a hole in your pocket. Meet the duo who have a business idea
:00:38. > :00:44.Down Under. Good morning, Asia, hello, world.
:00:45. > :00:51.Glad you could join us for this edition of Asia Business Report. It
:00:52. > :00:54.has been a week of ups and downs. Traders were to see if the US
:00:55. > :01:00.central bank will deliver a rate hike soon. The US dollar rose
:01:01. > :01:04.further overnight after minutes from the September meeting revealed the
:01:05. > :01:07.central bank is moving closer to raising the cost of a wing, with
:01:08. > :01:13.some members saying it was a close call. -- cost of borrowing. An
:01:14. > :01:19.update now on how this impacts the currencies.
:01:20. > :01:26.Ahead of next month's Fed meeting, many of the region's currencies have
:01:27. > :01:31.been on the downtrend against the greenback. For Thailand, their
:01:32. > :01:36.currency has been heading south due to domestic political concerns.
:01:37. > :01:41.Earlier I asked what else is driving them down. Over the past couple of
:01:42. > :01:45.weeks we've seen a big move up in the dollar against most Asian
:01:46. > :01:51.currencies and of course some of the G7 currencies. Pretty much in light
:01:52. > :01:55.of two key events coming up. First, the US presidential elections next
:01:56. > :02:02.month and of course in the lead up to meetings in November, as well as
:02:03. > :02:06.in December. So, the US presidential elections are creating uncertainty.
:02:07. > :02:11.That is the umbrella reason why currencies have weakened. What you
:02:12. > :02:15.also have domestic concerns, especially in the likes of Thailand,
:02:16. > :02:19.the Philippines and South Korea are that are hurting the current is even
:02:20. > :02:23.more? Yes. Some of the Asian currencies we have seen that have
:02:24. > :02:32.undergone a weakening include the Thai bite, which we have known for
:02:33. > :02:38.bomb threats Thailand has received. -- two and the help of the king.
:02:39. > :02:44.From a press police on Sunday, from the royal palace, typically the king
:02:45. > :02:50.of Thailand is viewed as a political peer who brings together investor
:02:51. > :02:57.confidence. So are you expecting more weakness for the Thai baht? We
:02:58. > :03:01.could, as uncertainty looms over the health of the king. The worst
:03:02. > :03:09.performing currency this year is the Philippines peso. We have seen an
:03:10. > :03:15.exodus of funds from the stock market. Is it all because of
:03:16. > :03:22.President Rodrigo Duterte's profanity and outbursts? Pretty much
:03:23. > :03:27.the way he is conducting his agenda, to weed out corruption, this is
:03:28. > :03:33.unsettling some of the investor sentiment and confidence. That's
:03:34. > :03:37.some outflow from the equity markets. Which particular currency
:03:38. > :03:41.is doing quite well, despite the weakness of some of the Asian
:03:42. > :03:50.emerging currencies? Is there a standout? It is basically a decline.
:03:51. > :03:57.The Korean won is now about 2%, but is down about 3%. There is no
:03:58. > :04:02.particular... We have a meeting coming up tomorrow that is having
:04:03. > :04:09.some impact as well. That was a senior strategist from
:04:10. > :04:13.Maybank. In other news:, the chief executive is standing down with
:04:14. > :04:17.immediate effect. He is seen here testifying at a US Senate hearing
:04:18. > :04:21.last month. His resignation comes in a week of the scandal over the US
:04:22. > :04:27.bank was Mac sales practices. It is investigating how 2 million accounts
:04:28. > :04:34.were opened without customers' permission.
:04:35. > :04:37.This comes after the South Korean conglomerate announced it would
:04:38. > :04:43.permanently and sales and production of its fire prone Galaxy Note 7
:04:44. > :04:49.smartphones. The recall of 2.5 million handsets has led Samsung to
:04:50. > :04:53.cut its preliminary profit forecast by one third for the three months
:04:54. > :04:57.until the end of September. The fallout in golf in money flows
:04:58. > :05:02.to Malaysia's state investment fund on NDD is indeed spreading, with
:05:03. > :05:09.Switzerland's attorney generals office opening the case. -- 1MDB. In
:05:10. > :05:13.Singapore, there was an announcement that the merchant bank would be shut
:05:14. > :05:16.down for allegedly breaching anti- money laundering controls.
:05:17. > :05:23.Key China trade numbers are due later this morning. The first since
:05:24. > :05:28.the new yuan was included in the IMF's basket of influential global
:05:29. > :05:32.currencies. Following the golden week holidays, there is hope the
:05:33. > :05:36.figures will show the economy is picking up after postings lower
:05:37. > :05:40.growth in the second quarter. Someone from JP Morgan explained
:05:41. > :05:46.what has been dragging down the second largest economy in the world.
:05:47. > :05:51.In the first six months of this year consumption actually contributed 73%
:05:52. > :05:55.of overall growth and also the service sector is now 54% of GDP,
:05:56. > :06:02.which is much bigger than manufacturing, only 45%. So the
:06:03. > :06:06.transition is happening in terms of the sources of growth. But in terms
:06:07. > :06:13.of the growth rate, it is lower compared to the recent past. 6.5% to
:06:14. > :06:17.7%, the growth rate that many first world economies would still want to
:06:18. > :06:25.have. When are they likely to break out of that 6.5% to 7% growth and
:06:26. > :06:30.move ahead towards 8% or 90 cents growth again, as in the past? I
:06:31. > :06:36.think is very unlikely. -- or 9%. In the future we expect the growth rate
:06:37. > :06:41.to stay between 6.5 and 7%. I do think China will go back to the 8% -
:06:42. > :06:45.10% range, because the size of the economy is a much bigger now
:06:46. > :06:48.compared to the past. This year the GDP is about 11 trillion US dollars,
:06:49. > :06:54.the second largest economy in the world. But importantly it is now
:06:55. > :06:59.contributing between 35% to 40% of global growth. As you said, China's
:07:00. > :07:03.growth rate is lower compared to ten years ago. The size of the economy
:07:04. > :07:08.is a much bigger, so therefore the contribution to global growth is
:07:09. > :07:14.bigger than ever before. If you are after custom-made clothes
:07:15. > :07:18.in this region, the popular options are in Vietnam or Hong Kong for
:07:19. > :07:22.their affordability. Now two Australian on the bidders have
:07:23. > :07:28.started a business doing the same in Sydney. -- entrepreneurs. The two
:07:29. > :07:38.found time to tell us about their start-up success.
:07:39. > :07:48.We are the cofounders. We were working together in corporate
:07:49. > :07:51.finance and we started noticing that all of our colleagues were getting
:07:52. > :07:56.their suits and shirts made overseas. Around that time
:07:57. > :08:00.e-commerce was really starting to take off in Australia and we sort of
:08:01. > :08:09.thought it was a really good opportunity to bridge that gap. It
:08:10. > :08:12.was a really low start cost opportunity for us and scalable, so
:08:13. > :08:15.we thought we had definitely identified a gap in the market for
:08:16. > :08:20.premium made-to-measure clothing, without the designer markup. I
:08:21. > :08:25.couldn't read or write Chinese and that was always a personal goal for
:08:26. > :08:30.me, to learn that. I went to a university in Beijing, one of the
:08:31. > :08:33.top two universities in China. I am Chinese, what I was basically
:08:34. > :08:38.illiterate. I'd also I just felt like with the way that China is
:08:39. > :08:43.developing, we would always need those skills in any business that we
:08:44. > :08:50.ended up doing. It wasn't always a smooth start. When we first went
:08:51. > :08:54.over to China, we thought we had all of this language skills that we
:08:55. > :08:59.wanted to use and we were out there trying to find a supplier and no one
:09:00. > :09:01.wanted to talk to us because we have this business model where every
:09:02. > :09:06.garment is made individually and Chinese suppliers are really more
:09:07. > :09:11.used to working on huge volumes for huge US retailers. But then we
:09:12. > :09:16.decided to go to Hong Kong, where the factories are actually smaller
:09:17. > :09:23.and they aren't producing on such large scale. Being Asian, the way we
:09:24. > :09:28.were brought up was you've got to study hard you can grow up and get a
:09:29. > :09:33.good job. But in my parents' eyes, a good job was always you have to be a
:09:34. > :09:38.doctor, lawyer, an accountant. It took a while for us to fix things
:09:39. > :09:44.here and there, change things, change it from a custom-designed to
:09:45. > :09:49.a custom fit, but we now do more in a week in revenue than we did in the
:09:50. > :09:57.first six months of trading. Very nice! Custom-made clothing. And
:09:58. > :10:01.before we go, a quick look at the markets. As you can see right now
:10:02. > :10:05.it's a mixed bag for the regional markets in business after US
:10:06. > :10:11.equities finished mixed, as energy companies fell, with the price of
:10:12. > :10:15.oil. Investors digestive minutes from Fed policymakers. That might
:10:16. > :10:19.see an interest rate hike before the end of the year and this is boosting
:10:20. > :10:23.the US dollar against major currencies, especially the Japanese
:10:24. > :10:27.yen. That's why exporters are leading the way for the Nikkei to do
:10:28. > :10:32.five, up by 107 points. Those are the markets. Thanks so
:10:33. > :10:41.much for investing your time with us. Sport Today is coming up next.
:10:42. > :10:46.The top stories this hour: Hundreds of well-wishers have gathered
:10:47. > :10:51.outside the Bangkok hospital, where there's growing concern over
:10:52. > :10:55.A Syrian man arrested over a suspected bomb plot in Germany has